Actually, I Really Haven't

The "I've Never" game ends up being a great game - especially when you have a lot of players or need to make everyone comfortably quickly. I feel like it wasn't set up in the best fashion, but it still ends up being an enjoyable game to play.

Published:
December 21, 2010

Pros:

Get to know others, Variety of questions, Fun game, Adult but not sexual

Cons:

Drinking game, Get to know one instead of many, Not too many cards

Rating by reviewer:

3

extremely useful review

The "I've Never..." Game is an adult game intended for 2-8 players. It's a mixture of a "tell your secrets" and a drinking game. The game comes with some instructions, 8 tokens, a dice, 90 question cards, the board, and 10 make-your-own-question cards. The game can be played with more than 8 players if you substitute other tokens in.

I think I actually like the design of the box shown in the EF pictures, but as you can see in my video, the design is actually different than the EF pictures. The box is made from a pretty sturdy cardboard that will make it easily stack up against other adult games. It will also hold weight on top of the box with no problem. The center of the box is open from cardboard to hold your cards and tokens, but I found that they never sit right, so I actually moved a small portion of the brown cardboard supports to put the tokens under that. (You'll understand if you have the game box in front of you.)

This game is really basic to play. Each player rolls the dice (regular six-sided) and moves to that spot on the game board. Once at that spot, the player then does what the spot on the board says. The spots include taking drinks/doing shots, doing one of the cards, doing a truth-or-dare with another player, or moving forward/backwards on the board. There are surprisingly a lot of spots on the board that tell you to take a drink. It's like 60% draw-a-card and 40% take a drink. This makes for some seriously drunk people if luck is not (or is, depending on your stance) on your side.

I've played this game before. Never with a board or with cards though. In the bus when we were younger, we used to play this game with your hands. You started with your ten fingers, and you lost when you had no fingers left. You'd go around a circle with the main player saying "Never have I ever...." then filling in with something they hadn't done. You had to put down a finger if you'd done it. It usually had to do more with texting and teenage-things instead of drinking and sex, but it was still fun to play. That's kinda what I wish this board game would do. See, with the way this game is set up, you only get to know about the one person who is playing the card. It would be more neat if you got to know about the other players at the same time. (But then again, the cards wouldn't stay as "unique" as long.)

I must be the most boring person ever. When the boyfriend and I played, we found that we were saying "false" to almost all of the cards. This must be made for people with a lot more a party lifestyle (or party past) than we do. A lot of the cards have to do with drinking, partying, and sex. Those really are the main themes. It's kinda neat like that, but the game went over our "experience" too. We ended up just playing most of the game with our own made-up questions to actually assure we'd be able to answer "true" to some of them.

As a side note, this game is intended to be played as a drinking game. I've known that ever since I played this game when I was younger. However, we don't drink, so we modified it a bit. Watch out what you choose to "modify" the drinking cards with; it turns out that that much chocolate milk is kinda gross. However, the game instructions recommend you play a "stripping" version where you remove clothing as well. You could also just play it with no real "penalties" aside from losing the game.

I know you want some examples, so examples include: "I've never had crabs", "I've never taken money from my roommate", "I've never gotten high at a concert", "I've never fantasized about my teacher", "I've never bought a dirty magazine", and "I've never slept in the nude" along with many others.

The game actually ends up being pretty fun - especially as you add more players and people you don't know. I think it'd make a really great icebreaker fora party - especially at a swinger party or kink party. Because the questions are mostly sex-orientated, you get to know each other and feel more comfortable with each other very quickly. While it was above the boyfriend and I's experience levels, most people probably won't have that problem. If you drink, the game is extra-fun. Overall, it's a nice board game with a nice idea behind it.

Follow-up commentaryI've started to like it more12 months after original review

We've started to like the game a bit more. We've pulled it out a couple more times with friends coming over, and it did lead to some good giggling and fun. In the end, it devolved into just going "screw the board" and using just the cards and asking the questions, but the game does have some replay value.

This product was provided free of charge to the reviewer. This review is in compliance with the
FTC guidelines.

About author

Reviewed by
Kayla(Eden Advanced reviewer)Mmmm....Bondage

Rank

7.3

wrote 544 reviews

Comments

ToyTimeTim

I love your reviews on games, makes me want to play it. I think this one would be a lot of fun.

12/21/2010

Waterfall

Looks like a really fun game that my friends would enjoy. Nice review

12/23/2010

namelesschaos

Seems like a fun game thanks for the review.

12/23/2010

myneurotica

looks fun

01/13/2011

Maiden

I thought this game would be more of getting to know every one, like the games we have played at parties without a board. Still looks like it could be fun though. Thanks for the review!